Sanguinius
sketch from Carpinius' Speculum Historiale of the Primarch Sanguinius during the Great Crusade.]] Sanguinius, also known as the "Great Angel" and the "Brightest One" during his lifetime, was the Primarch of the Blood Angels Legion of Space Marines. He was killed during the climax of the Horus Heresy at the Battle of Terra defending the Emperor of Mankind from the Warmaster Horus aboard his flagship, the Battle Barge Vengeful Spirit. Though Horus slew Sanguinius, who had once been his closest and greatest friend amongst the other Primarchs, Imperial legend holds that it was the chink in Horus' armour created by the Angel that allowed the Emperor to slay the Arch-heretic and thus prevent Mankind from falling to the corruption of the Ruinous Powers of Chaos. History The Primarch Project Kyriss after the end of the Signus Campaign during the Horus Heresy.]] The Space Marine Legions were the creations of the Emperor of Mankind. That immortal, god-like being crafted incredible warriors to help Him conquer the galaxy and reunite Mankind's lost colony worlds in the wake of the Age of Strife. Amongst these Legions were the Blood Angels, who from their earliest days fought staunchly in the service of Emperor and Primarch both. Like all the great Space Marine Legions, the Blood Angels were born from the dying flames of the Age of Strife. The risen Emperor had united the warring factions of Terra through the Unification Wars, yet His vision did not end with one mere planet, nor even with the solar system in which it lay. His goal was nothing less than the reunification of scattered Mankind, to bring the sundered worlds and realms of humanity under a single beneficent rule. To do this, He would need a mighty army, an army unlike any the galaxy had ever seen, an army whose warriors knew no other loyalty than to their Emperor, and whose bodies and minds were hardened to withstand unceasing war. So were the Space Marines created. The Emperor had long ago refined the techniques of genetic manipulation, and He set these skills to work once again, forging twenty extraordinary transhuman super-warriors, each an embodiment of an aspect of war as His generals in the coming campaign within His secret gene-laboratory hidden beneath the Himalazian (Himalayan) Mountains. Thus were born the Primarchs of the Space Marine Legions, incredible beings whose martial powers were to be second only to the Emperor Himself. Yet, as with all great labours, the genesis of the Space Marines did not go entirely according to design -- the Emperor's plan for His Primarchs was to be undone even before it had properly begun. Without warning, the Primarchs disappeared, stolen from the Emperor's laboratory while still within their gestation capsules, scattered throughout the galaxy through the Warp by an unknown force. Sanguinius Comes to Baal Soon after the Emperor created the Primarchs, the Ruinous Powers made off with the infants and carried them through the Empyrean. Unable to destroy the Primarchs outright because of the powerful arcane protections laid upon their gestating forms by the Emperor, the daemonic powers nonetheless did their best to alter the Emperor's work to their own selfish ends. Thus it was that even the best of the Emperor's creations became corrupted at the outset. The gestation pod that housed the infant Sanguinius came to rest upon Baal Secundus, at the place now known as Angel's Fall. The infant Primarch was found by one of the wandering tribes of humans who called themselves the Folk of Pure Blood, or simply "the Blood." The young Sanguinius' life almost came to an end then and there, for the touch of Chaos had changed him. Tiny vestigial wings, like those of an angel, emerged from his back. Many wanted to kill the child as a mutant, though in all other ways he was as perfect a child as had ever been seen. Eventually innate compassion prevailed and the child was spared. Sanguinius was indeed angelic, not just physically, but also within his unblemished soul. Many of the parables and psalms still recited by the Blood have been transcribed by Blood Angels Librarians over the years, and are kept with reverence in the most sacred shrine-archives of the Blood Angels. Although the details of Sanguinius' early life are lost to time and memory, the notable events of his childhood have been told and retold so many thousands of times by the Baalite tribes that they have become ingrained in cultural memory. Like the other Primarchs, Sanguinius grew to maturity at an incredible rate, as did his wings. The feathers were as white and pure as a swan's, but as strong as those of the Imperial Aquila itself. His wings ultimately became mighty pinions that could bear him aloft through the scorching desert air, inspiring awe and devotion from the lesser beings beneath. Sanguinius learned everything his adoptive parents within the Blood could teach him. After only three solar weeks he was as large as a child of three Terran years and could walk. It is said that at this age he slew a giant fire scorpion with his bare hands, and that he never once showed fear at the colossal beast's onset. By the time he was a standard year old, Sanguinius looked and acted like a man in his youthful prime. He could walk without a radiation suit in the poisoned, radioactive wastelands of Baal Secundus. In the use of all weapons he soon excelled his teachers. He could smash a path through a rockfall with the blade of his hand, best wild animals with but a glance and soar high into the sky on his mighty wings to observe the land below from the perspective of a god. As Sanguinius reached maturity, his tribe prospered and grew under his wise guidance. When a wandering band of feral Baalite mutants surprised his tribe, Sanguinius slew them all single-handedly, although they numbered over a hundred. This was the first time the members of the Blood had ever seen the Angel truly angry, for he felt his comrades' lives were in danger. When the blood-rage overtook him he was indeed terrible to behold. The full powers of a Primarch came upon him and a nimbus of light played about his head. Sanguinius distinguished himself in the fateful years that followed. He soon rose to the pinnacle of the primitive society present on Baal Secundus, and under his leadership, the pure-blooded Baalite tribes united against the infestation of mutants that had begun to plague the radioactive wastes of Baal. Under his perfect leadership, coupled with his total mastery of physical combat, the Baalite tribes drove back the tide of mutant filth that threatened humanity's hold upon their poisoned world. Under Sanguinius' direction Mankind earned another chance to build civilisation upon Baal Secundus. In time, as a result of his accomplishments, Sanguinius was inevitably worshiped as a god by the humans of Baal who owed him so much. They were convinced that paradise would follow in the crimson footsteps of the Angel. Sanguinius soon rose to leadership of the Blood, and under his guidance they rolled back the mutant tide. For a time Mankind had a respite on the moon of Baal Secundus. Sanguinius was worshipped as divine by his followers who felt that he could once again create a paradise in that dreadful land. Yet it was shortly thereafter that fate intervened once more. The Emperor Returns Though the loss of the Primarchs was a bitter blow, the Emperor was not dismayed for long. The Primarchs themselves could not be recreated, but their genetic records and samples of their genetic material remained, and from these the Emperor created the mighty Space Marine Legions -- the armies He had always intended His Primarchs to lead. It was at the head of the Space Marine Legions that the Emperor began His Great Crusade in earnest. Setting out from Terra in ca. 798.M30, the Emperor led the Space Marines on a glorious campaign that sought to restore Mankind to greatness. No foe could withstand the onslaught of this Great Crusade. Despots, aliens and daemons all fell to the relentless advance of the Space Marine Legions, worlds previously enslaved and terrorised flocking willingly to the banner of the nascent Imperium of Man. It was in the course of the Great Crusade that the lost Primarchs were at last reunited with their father and Emperor, taking up their rightful places as the masters of the Space Marine Legions. The Emperor, in the midst of His Great Crusade to reunite all the scattered worlds of Mankind, had been searching across the galaxy for His lost children and His incredible psychic powers had led Him to Baal. His ship landed at the Conclave of the Blood, and the Emperor entered the massive natural amphitheatre that had been carved from Mount Seraph by the Baalite tribes to serve as a central meeting place. Those of the pure blood attended Sanguinius' address by the tens of thousands. The Emperor stood within their ranks, a shining golden figure amongst the tattered warriors of the Blood. But the Emperor knew humility as well as divinity, and He listened as intently as any warrior there. Sanguinius gave a speech which lifted the very souls of his people, giving them more than hope, at its conclusion soaring into the air above them with a shout that every man there echoed. Sanguinius with his father, the Emperor of Mankind and Rogal Dorn of the Imperial Fists]] Thus the Emperor was convinced without a doubt that the Angel was indeed one of his lost sons. Others among the Primarchs are said to have fought against the Emperor when they first met, but this was not the case with Sanguinius. When approached, Sanguinius recognised the Emperor immediately. Many believe that Sanguinius' reputed ability to foresee future events informed him of the Emperor's visit, explaining his reaction. He fell to his knees, crystal tears falling from his cheeks into the crimson dust. Where they fell, alabaster flowers thrived upon the barren and toxic soils of Baal Secundus. The Emperor bade him stand, and looked upon the myriad faces raised unto him, proud and resolute. He saw that the men and women of the Blood were both fair in mind and deed, possessed of a small part of the nobility and strength of their leader. The best of Sanguinius' warriors were subsequently selected to become Astartes, implanted with the very core of Sanguinius' physical being; the pure and precious gene-seed that the Emperor had engineered from the Primarch's own genome. These warriors were raised up into the IX Legion of the Space Marines, better known as the Blood Angels, and then launched upon the Emperor's Great Crusade alongside those members of the Legion who had been raised from Terra. Those who remained upon Baal Secundus were entrusted with the duty of defending Mankind's birthright upon the planet, and ensuring that future generations of warriors were taught the Imperial Truth and learned of the Primarch who had once walked amongst them and restored their hope. So it is that even now, with millennia passed since those fateful days, the Blood Angels take all their Aspirants from the moons of Baal. Resplendent in glittering armour, shrouded in white wings, Sanguinius was the noblest of the Primarchs in physical aspect. Proud and resolute, the Angel radiated a confidence so vital that any shadows of doubt were banished beneath his light. The detail of the Primarch's intricately-worked Artificer Armour was rendered perfectly, the sculpted edges of the golden battle-plate visible along with the fine etching across the brassarts, shoulder guards and breastplate. On his chest was a heavy ornamental roundel carved from huge Megladari rubies. The central jewel was cut into the shape of a heart and set on a mount of gold flames, and it signified the burning spirit of the Blood Angels as expressed through their Primarch. Atop it were four more ruby discs, each dedicated to one of the worlds from which the IXth Legion had drawn its numbers -- Terra, in the first instance, then Baal and her two moons. Across one shoulder he wore a ceremonial war cloak, the black-dappled pelt of a Carnodon; similar in form to the extinct snow leopards of Old Earth but much, much larger. The ice stalker had been Sanguinius' first kill during the pacification of Teghar Pentarus, the first battle he had fought beside his Legion after reuniting with his father the Emperor. The Great Crusade Sanguinius of the Blood Angels Legion and his loyal Sanguinary Guard.]] No mere warriors were the Primarchs -- they were also shrewd and canny leaders of men, under whose command the righteous might of the Space Marine Legions increased a hundredfold. So it was that the Great Crusade surged onwards as never before. New battlefronts opened up under the Primarchs' direction and worlds were reclaimed by the thousand. Throughout it all, the Blood Angels and their Primarch, Sanguinius, fought at the Emperor's side, serving as honour guard to their beloved creator. Driven by a fiery temperament, the IXth Legion swiftly earned a fearsome reputation as shock troops, which came to feed a rivalry between them and the assault-oriented World Eaters Legion. Yet, in truth, the Blood Angels were never as ferocious as the World Eaters, for the wise influence of Sanguinius tempered their bloodlust. After being introduced to all of his fellow Primarchs, over the long Terran decades of the Great Crusade, Sanguinius formed the closest bonds with his brothers Horus, Leman Russ and Jaghatai Khan and the Blood Angels also forged close ties born in blood and battle with the Luna Wolves, Space Wolves and White Scars Legions, respectively. Though he was yet in the early days of his legend, Sanguinius was thought to be the noblest of the Primarchs and was ever deep in the Emperor's counsel. Even Horus, proud Warmaster of the Great Crusade and Primarch of the Luna Wolves, sensed a purity of spirit in Sanguinius that he could never match, a oneness with their genetic "father" that no other Primarch could ever hope to approach. Whilst many of his brothers fought the Great Crusade solely out of the joy of battle, Sanguinius fought to secure the golden era of peace and prosperity which would surely follow. His vision was the Emperor's, a hope of Mankind united in peace and prosperity. Alas, it was not to be. As the Great Crusade pushed outward, and more Primarchs were discovered, the Emperor's time became divided, pulled in more and more directions by the demands of organising the growing Imperium. Horus, the most favoured son of the Emperor, was often placed in overall strategic command of the Crusade, a position in which he proved his skill as a leader time and time again. He quickly won the approval and support of the other Space Marine Legions, along with that of their leaders. One of the burgeoning Imperium's greatest victories occurred during the Ullanor Crusade, a vast Imperial assault on the Ork Empire of the Overlord Urrlak Urruk. The capital world of this empire, Ullanor Prime, the site of the final assault, lay in the Ullanor System of the Ullanor Sector, which had long been under the dominion of Urrlak Urruk's Greenskin pocket empire. The Ullanor Crusade included the deployment of 100,000 Space Marines, 8,000,000 Imperial Army troops, 100 Titans of the Legio Mortis and 600 starships of the Imperialis Armada and their support personnel. Upon the successful conclusion of this most lauded of Imperial victories, Horus was raised by the Emperor to the rank of Imperial Warmaster and given command authority over all of his fellow Primarchs and every Expeditionary Fleet of the Great Crusade. Following the victory celebrations at the Triumph of Ullanor and the elevation of his most favoured son, the Emperor retired to Terra to pursue his secret Imperial Webway Project which was intended to open up the Aeldari Webway for human use so that the Imperium would tie Mankind together as never before in history, as well as cutting Mankind off from the nefarious influence of the Warp once and for all. But the Primarchs would never come to terms with the Emperor's absence. Their hurt feelings over his seeming abandonment of the Great Crusade to pursue a secret project, whose purpose he chose not to reveal to his sons, laid the seeds of corruption that would ultimately blossom into the Horus Heresy. Following the corruption of Horus by the Chaos Gods after his mortal wounding upon the plague moon of the Feral World of Davin, he began to lay the seeds for his coming rebellion, to overthrow the Emperor, and eventually assume the Imperial throne in his bid to rule the galaxy. In the midst of the darkness of the Horus Heresy, the Blood Angels never wavered, but held true at the Emperor's side. The Horus Heresy The terrible events of the Horus Heresy had a more horrifying and permanent effect upon the Blood Angels than any of the other Loyalist Space Marine Legions. It is this tragic fate that has shaped the Blood Angels and all of their Successor Chapters since that time. Just as it seemed that the Emperor's dream could be fulfilled, the Great Crusade ended in the most terrible and unimaginable way. It came to pass that the Imperial Warmaster Horus, once the Emperor's most trusted and beloved son, turned to Chaos, and plunged the dagger of betrayal so far into the heart of the Imperium that it is yet to recover from his evil deed ten millennia later. In a tragic sequence of events, the corrupt and evil being that Horus had become managed to manipulate and coerce several other Primarchs, turning them against their own father and mentor, the Emperor Himself. These events culminated after nine savage years of civil war in the combined attack of Horus' Traitor Legion forces upon the Imperial Palace on Terra. Space Marine fought Space Marine, Traitor battled Loyalist until the fortifications of Terra's greatest edifice looked set to fall. Chaos was ascendant; the powers that Horus had allied himself with had given him power beyond imagining at the cost of his immortal soul. The Flaw Horus Lupercal.]] Before his fall, Horus and Sanguinius had fought many campaigns by each others' side. Their relationship was so close it had even incited jealousy amongst their brother Primarchs on occasion. But in his black heart Horus knew that Sanguinius would never willingly betray their father, and so he had formulated an audacious plan to either convert the Blood Angels Legion to his cause or utterly destroy them. To this end, Horus had discovered solar decades earlier a carefully guarded secret of the Blood Angels when he fought alongside Sanguinius' IXth Legion in a xenocidal campaign on the world of Melchior. Horus had come upon his brother Primarch in a sunken ruin of an alien chapel and had witnessed the unthinkable -- Sanguinius murdering one of his own Astartes. Sanguinius explained his actions to his bewildered brother. He had discovered that within his own genome there was a terrible trait that lay buried and waiting to be awakened. This genetic flaw would later be known as the Red Thirst. Sanguinius had been aware of the flaw in his genome for several years, keeping the truth from the Emperor and his fellow Primarchs. Some of the Angel's sons had learned a measure of the truth, but only Azkaellon, First Captain Raldoron, the IXth Legion's Master Apothecary on the Legion homeworld of Baal and a few others were fully aware of the extent of this affliction carried within their Primarch's genome. They were united with Sanguinius in finding a way to repair this "Flaw." Horus swore to his brother that he would never speak of this matter to anyone, even their father. He would keep this promise for as long as Sanguinius wished him to. The Angel was touched by his brother's gesture and expressed his gratitude. Horus solemnly vowed to help Sanguinius deal with this matter, however long it took. Little did they know at the time that one day a corrupted Horus would take full advantage of this knowledge and attempt to turn the Blood Angels' Flaw against them. The Signus Campaign Assault Legionary battles hordes of daemons on Signus Prime.]] Solar decades later, Horus exploited this knowledge of the Blood Angels' genetic Flaw. The Warmaster had found a way to sway his "beloved" brother's Legion to his cause and the service of the Chaos Gods -- or see it destroyed before it could become an impediment to his plan to drive on Terra and take the Imperium for his own. It is said that after his turn to Chaos, Horus hated and feared Sanguinius more than any of his brothers and wove many strategies to ensnare or slay him, though all failed. In an effort to weaken and divide the Loyalist forces before he made clear his betrayal, the Warmaster charged the IXth Legion with the arduous task of cleansing the Signus Cluster -- a triple star system of the Segmentum Ultima near the galactic centre. Sanguinius' Legion was ordered to cleanse the 7 worlds and 15 moons of the Signus Cluster of xenos invaders and release the humans settlers from their xenos-overlords. Unaware of the Warmaster's perfidy, Sanguinius willingly obeyed his brother Primarch's commands and immediately set out for this volatile region of space with his Legion. Unbeknownst to the Blood Angels, they were blindly walking into a deadly trap, for the Signus Cluster had fallen prey to agents of the Ruinous Powers and become a veritable Realm of Chaos within realspace -- a system of hellish Daemon Worlds under the rule of a Greater Daemon of Slaanesh known as Kyriss the Perverse. When the Blood Angels arrived in-system, their fleet was ambushed by the malevolent forces of the Warp, crippling or killing many of their Navigators and Astropaths in the initial onslaught. The Blood Angels now faced the fury of Chaos for the first time. Kyriss sent an image of himself to Sanguinius, declaring his lordship over the star system in the name of Slaanesh and taunting the Primarch into taking it back from him. Though they had never faced such an unnatural foe, the Blood Angels prepared their counterattack, sure that they would prevail. Rising to the challenge of the vile Greater Daemon, the Blood Angels Legion attacked the daemonic host of Kyriss, launching a series of attacks across the seat of the daemon's power, the world of Signus Prime. Sanguinius faced the vast hordes of human Chaos Cultists and packs of monstrous daemons as an Angel of Vengeance. Soon the planet was awash with the blood of both loyal Space Marines and thousands of slain cultists of Kyriss. The Primarch spearheaded the Blood Angels' assault on the Greater Daemon's seat of power, known as the Cathedral of the Mark, to confront and destroy Kyriss and reclaim the planet in the name of the Emperor. But soon Sanguinius came face-to-face with a new nightmare known as Ka'Bandha, a Greater Daemon of Khorne. Within the pantheon of the Blood God, Ka'Bandha is still regarded as one of his most prolific killers. He was and is a murderous engine of destruction, slaughtering in exalted joy for his lord Khorne. combating the Greater Daemon Ka'Bandha.]] The mighty daemon taunted the Primarch, and revealed Horus' treachery and determination to betray the Emperor. Enraged by the daemon's mockery and fearing his claims about the Warmaster to be true, the angelic Primarch fought the brutal Bloodthirster in single combat. Seizing the initiative during the battle, he surprised the Bloodthirster with his frenzied assault, stabbing his sword into the daemon's chest, ripping open a gaping wound. The massive creature roared in fury and pain, lashing out with his whip at the Primarch's legs. Sanguinius was momentarily unbalanced as his legs were crushed in the whip's coils. The daemon then smashed Sanguinius to the ground with the flat of his massive axe. The winged hero was stunned, helpless before the daemon's wrath. As his vision cleared he looked up at the mighty monster towering over him. The Greater Daemon taunted him one final time, let out a mighty bellow and then struck out across the battlefield, slaughtering 500 Space Marines with huge swathes of his mighty axe. The psychic backlash of the deaths of so many of his Astartes blasted Sanguinius into unconsciousness. It would not be until the closing days of the Horus Heresy that Sanguinius would once again be confronted by the savage Daemon Lord during the Battle of Terra. With the fall of their Primarch and the slaughtering of their brethren, the Blood Angels Legion was consumed by the first onset of what was later known as the "Black Rage" that drove them into a berserker's fury as they charged into the daemonic horde. In their madness they smashed the daemons asunder. Yet the brutal violence of the daemon Ka'Bandha had unleashed something dark within the psyche of the Space Marines, a thirst for blood that would not be slaked until every taint of Chaos had been erased from the planet. Even the mighty Kyriss was ultimately banished back to the Immaterium by his death at the Blood Angels' hands. Only when the planet was cleansed did the rage of the Blood Angels finally subside. Though Signus Prime had been freed from its thrall to the Forces of Chaos, the cost of that victory was far higher than any could have wished. The berserker rage the Blood Angels had experienced had left a brooding shadow on their souls that would manifest in the centuries to come as the great curse that would afflict the Blood Angels and their Successors. Within a few solar days the grievous wounds that Sanguinius had suffered at the hands of the Greater Daemon healed as a result of his accelerated metabolism and superhuman immune system. Whatever befell him in the future, the Primarch swore that he would have his vengeance upon the daemon Ka'bandha. When the call from Rogal Dorn came for the IXth Legion to return to Terra and aid in its defence against the Traitors, the Blood Angels made all haste, as he now understood better than most the gravity of the situation facing the Imperium. Arrival in the Five Hundred Worlds of Ultramar Following the end of this long, grueling campaign, the Blood Angels attempted a Warp jump towards the Throneworld. Despite the impassable torrential Ruinstorm that had been conjured by the Word Bearers during the Battle of Calth, the fleet's Navigators were able to pinpoint a shining beacon, which they initially assumed was the Astronomican. Desperate, the IXth Legion's fleet Navigators followed it. Sensing "safe harbour," the fleet immediately executed a Warp translation back into realspace. When they finally exited the Empyrean, they found themselves hundreds of light-years off-course, nowhere near their targeted destination. But it was by no accident that the Blood Angels had arrived at the current, unknown destination, as Sanguinius had ordered his Navigators to strike for the strongest telepathic signal. They had inadvertently detected the shining beacon of the ancient alien artefact known as the Pharos on the distant world of Sotha. Unknowingly, the Blood Angels had traveled clear across the galaxy in the Warp, and ended up in the Realm of Ultramar. Soon they were approached by a skirmish line of unidentified starships. They were hailed by the bright cobalt-blue vessels, trimmed with white and shining gold. The Blood Angels were greeted by the master of the XIIIth Legion himself, Roboute Guilliman, who welcomed his brother Primarch to the Five Hundred Worlds. Imperium Secundus Primarch Roboute Guilliman declares a reluctant Sanguinius the rightful ruler of the Imperium Secundus.]] With the Imperium severed in two halves, isolated and ignorant of each other as a result of the raging tumult of the Ruinstorm, the light of the Astronomican was no longer visible from Ultramar and no word of the Emperor had been heard for several Terran years. The Ultramarines Primarch Roboute Guilliman had declared the foundation of the "Imperium Secundus" as a means of continuing the fight against the Traitors and securing the Emperor's great work. When the Blood Angels arrived at Ultramar having escaped the Signus Cluster, Guilliman proclaimed Sanguinius as the rightful heir to the Emperor and the Imperator Regins of Imperium Secundus. Not long after, the Dark Angels also followed the guiding beacon of the Pharos and arrived in the Five Hundred Worlds. Lion El'Jonson was declared the Lord Protector of the new realm and supreme master of all its military forces, a title equivalent to that of "Warmaster." Unfortunately, the foundation of the Imperium Secundus was marred when the Night Lords Primarch Konrad Curze, who had been hiding within the bowels of the Dark Angels flagship, escaped from the Invincible Reason and rampaged across Macragge, intent on spreading as much terror and chaos as he could. Eventually, both Guilliman and the Lion confronted the cornered Curze. Their attempt to kill him proved unsuccessful as the Night Lords Primarch had laid a cunning trap for his brothers. He brought down an entire chapel upon the two Primarchs through the use of planted explosives and then fled the scene. Guilliman and the Lion were only saved through the direct intervention of the Loyalist Iron Warriors Warsmith Barabas Dantioch, who was communicating with Guilliman at the time of the attack. Dantioch used a portal that was opened by the Pharos. On instinct, the Warsmith reached through the portal and pulled the two Primarchs across the galaxy to safety on Sotha. Capture and Trial of the Night Haunter , sits forlornly upon his throne.]] Continuing his obsessive hunt for the elusive Night Haunter over the following two Terran years, the Lion and Guilliman continuously clashed over the policies of the Imperium Secundus, especially in regards to the security of the new realm, and how best to deal with rebels on Macragge that the Lion was certain Curze had stirred up against the new regime. Following the suicide bombing of an Astartes convoy by these rebels, the Lion used his I Legion to establish martial law on Macragge. Certain that Curze was hiding within the rebellious Illyrium region of Macragge, the Lion advocated the use of a massive orbital saturation bombardment of the region to ensure Curze's death. Facing resistance from both the Imperator Regis Sanguinius and Guilliman to the civilian losses this would incur, the Lion instead opted to deploy his Legion's Dreadwing in order to flush out Curze and the rebels. During an attack on the city of Alma Mons, the Lion finally cornered the elusive Night Lords Primarch and the two came to blows. After a brutal confrontation, the Lion eventually emerged victorious, and questioned his brother why he had turned away from the Emperor, to which Curze simply replied, "Why not?" Curze explained that there was a monster in his head that he could not stop. Though he finally had Curze at his mercy, the Lion couldn't bring himself to kill his brother, and instead pummeled him into unconsciousness once more. He ripped Curze's backpack from his battle-plate and lifted him above his head, brutally slamming him down across his knee, breaking Curze's spine and paralysing him. The Lion brought the grievously wounded Night Haunter before Sanguinius and Guilliman to stand trial. A Triumvirate was held, where Curze defended his actions, but refused to admit his guilt. Since each of the Primarchs had been created to perform a specific military function, Curze declared that he was simply acting according to his own nature as the embodiment of terror tactics, and therefore had committed no crimes. The Night Lords Primarch further divided Guilliman and the Lion by accusing the latter of secretly ordering orbital bombardments in direct violation of Guilliman's orders. Enraged at the revelation of his secret maneuvering, the Lion sought to kill Curze, but was halted by the words of Sanguinius. Guilliman then snatched El'Jonson's Lion Sword and broke the blade across his armoured thigh in anger that his brother had sought to go behind his back. El'Jonson was furious at the loss of his blade, but Sanguinius dismissed the Lord Protector and brought an end to the ruling Triumvirate of the Imperium Secundus. The Lion was banished from the Imperium Secundus for his violation of Guilliman's directive against minimising civilian casualties. Taking his leave without further comment, the Lion and his Dark Angels withdrew from Macragge only solar hours later. Standing in the chamber of the Tuchulcha Engine aboard the Invincible Reason, the Lion brooded over the recent events, and questioned his actions over the course of the preceding decades and many of the decisions he had come to regret. As the Dark Angels made their final preparations to depart for their own homeworld of Caliban, the Lion went back to the Tuchulcha Engine's chamber. He then ordered the device to teleport himself and Holguin, "Deathbringer," the chosen Lieutenant of the Deathwing, back to Macragge. As Sanguinius was preparing to execute Curze for his crimes, both the Lion and his lieutenant teleported directly into the chamber and told Sanguinius to halt the execution. As troops entered the room, demanding that the Lion surrender, El'Jonson explained his reasons for the intrusion. He reasoned that Curze had the ability to see precognitive visions of potential futures, and repeated the Night Haunter's claim that his death would one day come at the hands of an Assassin sent by the Emperor. If this was true, the Lion reasoned, then it was proof that the Emperor was still alive on Terra. Sanguinius knew the Lion's explanation rang true, as he recognised that his own precognitive visions of his inevitable death at the hands of the Warmaster Horus would also eventually come to pass. When Guilliman demanded to know what would become of Curze, the Lion knelt before his two brothers and promised that he would be Curze's gaoler. The Battle of Terra Legionaries defend the Imperial Palace from the Warmaster's Traitor Legions.]] The Blood Angels' finest hour would take place during the closing days of the Horus Heresy. Known in Imperial records as the Battle of Terra, this final campaign was the climax of the Heresy that raged on Terra itself between the Forces of Chaos led by the Warmaster Horus and the Loyalist armies of the Imperium of Man led by the Emperor of Mankind Himself. Many of the Loyalist Astartes Legions had been waylaid by the forces of the Traitor Legions loyal to Horus following his many machinations and they were unable to make their way towards Terra in time to help in its defence. But the Imperial Fists Legion had already returned to the cradle of humanity and under the stern gaze of their Primarch Rogal Dorn had adequately prepared Terra's defences as best they could. Jaghatai Khan, Primarch of the White Scars Legion, had also managed to make his way to Terra with his Legion to help with the defence of the Imperial Palace, despite a curiously ineffectual assault by the fleet of the Alpha Legion. The Blood Angels were also able to make the Warp jump to Terra in time to meet the oncoming invaders. Of the nine remaining Loyalist Space Marines Legions, only the White Scars and the Blood Angels were able to join Rogal Dorn and his Imperial Fists in the defence of Terra before the arrival of the massed Traitor Legions in the Sol System. Three entire Titan Legions of the Mechanicum and close to 2 million soldiers of the Imperial Army stood alongside them to face the hosts of Chaos in a battle that would determine the fate of Mankind for the next ten millennia. Yet for all the might of the Emperor, for every effort of Sanguinius and the remaining Loyalist Primarchs, the forces of Horus drove all before them. In too short a time, the Emperor of Mankind was assailed within His great palace on Terra, traaped as he was upon the Golden Throne due to the War Within the Webway being fought deep within the Imperial Dungeon. The Blood Angels led the defence of the Imperial Palace, never once losing heart, despite the terrible odds stacked against them. Alongside their Battle-Brothers of the Imperial Fists Legion, the valorous yet overmatched soldiers of the Imperial Army and the grim warriors of the Legio Custodes, the Blood Angels manned the walls of that final bastion. Sanguinius is immortalised in the magnificent stained glass windows of the Sanctus Praetoria Imperator as fighting high above the raging battle, facing daemons so powerful they could unhinge the minds of great heroes with but a word. Sanguinius single-handedly held the crenellations from the tides of daemonic filth attempting to wash into the holy chambers of the Emperor's abode. Many accounts of the time praise the Blood Angels' valour and unceasing efforts in their defence of the Palace complex's Eternity Wall spaceport. Although hundreds of Blood Angels died, they stemmed a sea of foulness the like of which had never been seen before. Many speak of the bright light bathing Sanguinius' sons as the Primarch slew his foes in the skies above with his mighty blade of fire. And yet, it was upon Horus' Battle Barge in orbit of Terra that Sanguinius was to fulfil his greatest duty. During the Battle of Terra, the vile Bloodthirster Ka'Bandha once again confronted Sanguinius, this time, atop the Eternity Gate before the entranceway to the Inner Palace and the Emperor's throne room. The Greater Daemon struck Sanguinius, casting the angel upon the broken stone. Preparing to strike a killing blow, the Blood Angels' Primarch called upon his last reserves of strength and power. With a massive effort, he leapt upon the Bloodthirster, seized it about the wrist and ankle and rose up high into the air, smashing the daemon's form across his knee and breaking the creature's back with a powerful crack. He then swung the body of Ka'Bandha around and hurled the broken behemoth into the midst of the daemonic host, slamming the Eternity Gate shut against the ravening hordes and preventing the fall of the Palace. Yet the fall of Terra still seemed only a matter of time, for all the heroics of its defenders. Yet, in the Warmaster Horus' moment of victory, he became complacent, watching the battle from the bridge of the bloated leviathan that was his flagship, the Vengeful Spirit. He wanted to experience the Emperor's defeat first hand, to force Him to His knees before he fed on the Master of Mankind's soul. Yet it was then that he received word that his gamble had failed -- determined to take Terra before the Loyalist Legions could return to the Throneworld, the Ultramarines, Dark Angels and Space Wolves were only hours away from translating into the Sol System. Their arrival would bring the Traitors' momentum to a halt, if not throw them back from the Throneworld altogether. But there remained a final option -- the Warmaster could invite the Emperor to come to him. Horus relaxed the psychic defences and the Void Shields he had maintained around his flagship. Having long planned for exactly this moment due to his prescient vision, the Emperor teleported aboard the hellish craft, Sanguinius and Rogal Dorn and a contingent from the Imperial Fists, the Blood Angels and the Legio Custodes close behind him. Like his father, Sanguinius was gifted with the power of prescient vision, and had long been able to foresee what lay ahead. His soul was pure, and the prophesies he spoke of inevitably came to be. It can thus be surmised that he knew full well he was going to his doom when he confronted the Warmaster, and yet he went without hesitation. Whether this act was prompted by fatalism or loyalty to the Emperor is a point debated by many Imperial theologians lacking in faith, however there is no doubt in the minds of the Blood Angels. They maintain that the Angel walked into the lion's den out of duty, knowing full well what the outcome would be. Horus' throne room aboard the Vengeful Spirit]] Battle raged throughout the daemon-infested warship, and Sanguinius became separated from the Emperor and his other comrades. Now isolated, legend tells that he was brought through artifice before the treacherous Horus. In evil cunning, fully in the grip of the power of all four major Chaos Gods, the Warmaster offered Sanguinius one final chance to renounce the Emperor, to join with Horus in the inevitable victory of the Traitors and Chaos -- yet the Primarch of the Blood Angels held true, and refused. Rejected, Horus flew into a rage and attacked. Although bearing the wounds of his earlier actions and knowing it would almost certainly spell his doom, Sanguinius immediately attacked the corrupted Warmaster. Even at the peak of his powers, Sanguinius could not have hoped to prevail against the embodiment of Chaotic power Horus had become, and the Primarch was weary and wounded from his travails on Terra during the battle against Ka'Bandha. Horus, in his limitless malice, made sure that Sanguinius' death was the most painful and foul that the boundless evils in his service could administer. The Warmaster's psychic assault echoed not just throughout space, but also throughout time, resonating in the souls of Sanguinius' children. The Primarch's sacrifice is thought to have kept Horus occupied long enough for the Emperor to reach the Archtraitor in the very depths of his lair. When the Emperor at last entered Horus' sanctum, he found the rebellious Warmaster standing above Sanguinius' broken, bleeding corpse. In the battle that followed, Horus was finally vanquished, though the Emperor had also been mortally wounded and was near to death. There are many tales told of this final battle and, though the exact facts are long lost, one detail holds through all the recitations of the millennia since. Despite the Emperor's great power, he could never have bested Horus had not the blade of Sanguinius wrought a chink in the Warmaster's armour, and because of this, the Blood Angels claim their gene father to be the greatest of all Primarchs. The pain inflicted upon the Primarch during his battle with Horus was so total that every one of his sons carries the echo imprinted deep within their soul and their genomes to this day. The psychic echo of Sanguinius' sacrifice can still be heard by the Blood Angels down through the millennia, causing a madness and a fury to come upon them as they see dark visions of their Primarch's final hours. And so it was that the Blood Angels came to bear their blood-curses of the Black Rage and the Red Thirst, and they bear it still. Aftermath Legion during the Great Scouring.]] The Imperium was forever changed in the wake of Horus' defeat. No longer would the beneficent Emperor take a martial role in Mankind's defence, for His shattered body was now sustained only by the life-giving machineries of the Golden Throne. The reconstruction of His empire and the final rout of the Traitor forces would now fall to the surviving Primarchs, men such as Rogal Dorn of the Imperial Fists and Roboute Guilliman of the Ultramarines. Indeed, it was Guilliman who would have the greatest lasting effect upon the now-leaderless Blood Angels. Through the Codex Astartes -- that great treatise on the restructuring and ordering of the Space Marines -- Guilliman's legacy would reshape the Blood Angels Legion into the Chapters that defend the Imperium to this day. Guilliman sought to ensure no single man could ever command the full destructive power of a Space Marine Legion again. To do this, he insisted that the Legiones Astartes be divided into smaller 1,000-man autonomous units. Some of his surviving brothers railed against this dissolution as a perceived injustice and a sleight against the integrity of their Legions. At a time when emotions were running high and weary souls saw treachery and judgement in every remark, this edict threatened to cause a new Imperial civil war. In the end, though, Guilliman could not be denied, and one by one his surviving brothers and the leaderless Loyalist Legions relented. The Legiones Astartes were no more: the Chapters of the Adeptus Astartes were born. For the Blood Angels, this division was a cruel double blow. Their Primarch, Sanguinius, was dead, slain at Horus' own hands in the final moments of the Heresy and now, without time to grieve their father nor recoup the terrible casualties suffered in the Battle of Terra, their close-knit fraternity was to be sundered. The survivors lacked an obvious leader and, worse still, the first signs of the Flaw were beginning to manifest within the ranks of the IX Legion. It is fair to say that the Blood Angels' encounters with the scions of Chaos had left them physically and psychically scarred and the horror of their master's death was a visceral wound upon their souls. Since fighting against the daemons of Khorne and Slaanesh at Signus Prime, a nascent thirst had awoken within the Legion, and the psychic aftershock of Sanguinius' death at the hands of the Warmaster had cursed their souls with what would come to be known as the Black Rage. Though the Heresy was over, for the Blood Angels, their greatest trial was just beginning. From the midst of this sorrow and tragedy arose the Chapters of this new birth, referred to as the Second Founding. While each Legion worked out for itself how to divide (and some Legions experienced a more harrowing road than even the Blood Angels), the Sons of Sanguinius were at last united by the sole survivor of the Sanguinary Guard, Azkaellon. Accounts from this time differ greatly, but all concur that at Azkaellon's counsel the survivors of the IX Legion formed a small number of Chapters, commanded by the champions of the Blood Angels. Each took on the traditions and rites of their Legion as the basis for their new brotherhood and adopted a fitting name. Thus began a time of rebuilding for the Sons of Sanguinius, who separated to establish themselves as autonomous organisations. Notably, even in this time of disarray, the vengeful Chapter Master Nassir Amit, known by his peers as the "Flesh Tearer," led his eponymous Chapter on a blood-soaked crusade to seek out and annihilate any vestige of the Traitor Legions. Their actions, even in the early years of the Flesh Tearers' existence, laid the foundations upon which they would be known, and judged, ever after. Imperial Saint .]] The body of Sanguinius was taken by the Imperial forces as they retreated from Horus' crippled flagship back to Terra. His body was then borne away by his Blood Angels to their homeworld of Baal, where he was buried deep within a vast tomb beneath the Blood Angels' main chapel. The doors to his tomb were topped with massive, angelic effigies in honour of their fallen Primarch. Today, nearly ten millennia later, Sanguinius is one of the most venerated of all the Loyalist Primarchs by the teeming masses of the Imperium. He is commonly held in the highest honour due to his noble sacrifice which allowed the beloved Emperor to defeat the Archtraitor Horus. The name Sanguinius is cherished throughout the Imperium by the common citizenry. Chapels devoted to Sanguinius have been erected alongside the temples dedicated to the Emperor. The Primarch is even commemorated on his own sacred day of celebration within the liturgy of the Imperial Cult called the Sanguinala, when Imperial Adepts across the galaxy wear the red badge of Sanguinius on their breasts to commemorate his sacrifice. To this day, the Blood Angels are among the most feared and least trusted of all the Space Marine Chapters, their souls haunted by the horror of those ancient events and their bodies wracked by a secret and terrible thirst for blood that must never be revealed. Sanguinius' Foresight Sometimes gift, sometimes curse, the winged sire of the Blood Angels was among that small number of Primarchs able to glimpse what was to come to pass, a sliver of the psychic prescient talent held by their own father, the Emperor Himself. Through this ability Sanguinius saw many things, echoes of dark futures and grim fates that haunted his dreams and drove him to act in ways that oftentimes seemed strange to his brothers. He could not guide his foresight or direct it to see where he would. It came to him unreliably and without his will or control. It taunted him with dire premonitions, beset him with doubts over his choices and yet to many it was seen as a gift. It was a burden borne by the Primarch almost alone, for of his own gene-sons next to none inherited the talent. Of that tiny handful that did, it was little more than a fragment, a tiny scrap of sight. Most well-known among these talents were those who foresaw a single moment of the future with absolute clarity -- that of their own death. These warriors were known among the ranks of the IX Legion as "the Foresaken," for they were given to a fatalistic and grim outlook, ever seeking the signs of their final day. Such was the curse of the Foresight, that it brought neither comfort nor answers, only ever sorrow, pain and doubt. Sources *''Codex: Blood Angels'' (7th Edition) *''Codex: Blood Angels'' (5th Edition) *''Codex: Blood Angels'' (4th Edition) *''Codex: Blood Angels'' (3rd Edition) *''Codex: Angels of Death'' (2nd Edition) *''Codex Imperialis'' *''Deathwatch: First Founding'' (RPG), pp. 37-38 *''Horus Heresy: Collected Visions'' *''Index Astartes II'', "Angels of Death - The Blood Angels Space Marine Chapter" *''White Dwarf'' 261 (US), "Index Astartes First Founding - Angels of Death, The Blood Angels Space Marine Chapter" *''White Dwarf'' 262 (AUS), "Index Astartes – Blood Angels" *''White Dwarf'' 330 (UK), "Blood Angels Official Codex: Part I" *''White Dwarf'' 331 (UK), "Blood Angels Official Codex: Part II" *''Horus Rising'' (Novel) by Dan Abnett *''False Gods'' (Novel) by Graham McNeill *''A Thousand Sons'' (Novel) by Graham McNeill *''Fear to Tread'' (Novel) by James Swallow *''Unremembered Empire'' (Novel) by Dan Abnett *''Angels of Caliban'' (Novel) by Gav Thorpe *''Herald of Sanguinius'' (Audio) by Andy Smillie *''Deus Encarmine'' (Novel) by James Swallow *''Deus Sanguinius'' (Novel) by James Swallow *''Red Fury'' (Novel) by James Swallow *''The Horus Heresy Book Eight: Malevolence'' (Forge World Series) by Neil Wylie and Anuj Malhotra, pp. 119-122 es:Sanguinius Category:S Category:Blood Angels Category:Characters Category:History Category:Imperial_Characters Category:Imperium Category:Primarchs Category:Space Marines